Ex-Palm Beach State Attorney Says It Was Acosta’s ‘Secret Negotiations’ With Epstein Lawyers That Tanked Case

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Former Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer has accused Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta of attempting to “rewrite history” by suggesting state prosecutors went easy on Jeffrey Epstein when he got a cushy plea deal more than a decade ago. In a statement released shortly after Acosta's press conference Wednesday, Krischer said the labor secretary's “recollection of the matter is completely wrong.” The 53-page indictment against Epstein was abandoned, Krischer said, after “secret negotiations between Mr. Epstein’s lawyers and Mr. Acosta.” He said the State Attorney’s office had no part in the meetings and negotiations, nor did they participate in the “Non-Prosecution Agreement and the unusual confidentiality agreement that kept everything hidden from the victims.”

“If Mr. Acosta was truly concerned with the State’s case and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would have moved forward with the 53-page indictment that his own office drafted. Instead, Mr. Acosta brokered a secret plea deal that resulted in a Non-Prosecution Agreement in violation of the Crime Victim’s Rights act,” Krischer wrote, adding that Acosta should not be allowed to “rewrite history.”